Wet gases, e.g., water-containing natural gas, can be effectively dried by contacting them with a desiccant, e.g., with dry alkylene glycol. In this well known process, a dry gas stream and a wet desiccant stream is produced. It is furthermore known in the art that the wet desiccant stream can be regenerated by passing this stream through a regenerator or a stripping column to remove the acquired moisture. The regenerated desiccant can be recycled and used for further water removal from the gas.
It is also known in the art that the desiccant can be passed through heat exchange coils, which are located in the bottom of the stripper vessel. In this known process, the water-containing desiccant is passed through stagnant desiccant. The heat exchange of this known process is thus not optimal.